Racism and xenophobia in May 2014

In May 2014, no fewer than 17 people fell victim of racist and neo-Nazi attacks, and one of them was killed. These attacks were reported in Saint-Petersburg (3 injured), the Astrakhan region (1 injured), the Krasnodar territory (1 killed, 7 injured), Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk regions (2 injured in both). The victims are natives of the Caucasus (1 killed, and 7 injured) and of Central Asia (1 injured), as well black people (3 injured), people of «non-Slavic appearance» (2 injured), members of informal groups (2 injured) and others (1 injured).

In total, according to our preliminary data, 10 people have been killed and at least 48 injured in 17 regions of Russia since the beginning of 2014. One person have received serious death threats.

In May, we recorded at least 4 acts of vandalism which could be considered as motivated by hatred or by neo-Nazi ideology. Since the beginning of the year, no fewer than 22 such acts of vandalism have been taken place, in 17 regions of the country.

As usual in May, the most significant event in the ultra-right milieu was «Russian Mayday». In Moscow, two separate actions were held due to a discord between the «Russians» association (Russkie) and the National-Democratic Party (NDP) concerning their different positions toward the Ukrainian question. As usual, the «Russian coalition of action» held another, independent event. The march organized by the «Russians» association followed its habitual itinerary from the Oktyabrskoe pole metro station to the metro station Schukinskaya via Marshall Biryuzov street and Marshall Vasilevsky street. It gathered around 500 people. The meeting held by the NDP and the «ROD Human Rights Center» in Gorky Park turned out to be much smaller, gathering about 180 people. As for the «Russian Coalition of Action», its «Russian Spring – Russian Unity» march and meeting gathered about 150 people.

Besides Moscow, «Russian Mayday» events were held in 21 cities, but most of these actions gathered a very small number of participants – less than 50 people.

In Pushkino near Moscow, football fans held a march and meeting under xenophobic slogans on May 15. The event was triggered by the murder of yet another Spartak fan, Leonid Safyannikov, during a fight with natives of Uzbekistan on May 13. A building site, as well as stalls of the town's market, were sacked in the course of the event.

After the action, lots of calls for a «new Manezhka» to be held on May 18 on Manezhnaya Square in Mocow (as well as any major squares in other regions of the country) appeared on social networks. However, the majority of ultra-right leaders either ignored the event or deliberately opposed it as a provocation. As a result, the meeting held on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow gathered only a few uncoordinated ultra-right groups, and a few isolated activists.

''Respectable'' nationalists were also active in May. In particular, some of them ran as candidates for the Civic Chamber. During the night of May 31, the elections on the ''Internet-third'' were brought to a close. Valery Korovin – deputy director of the International Eurasian Movement headed by Alexander Dugin and editor-in-chief of the information and analysis portal ''Eurasia'' – passed in the section ''Harmonization of inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations, and support for civil peace and concord'' due to the 39,299 votes he received during the internet poll.

We are aware of only one conviction for racist violence in May which considered hatred as a motive. The verdict was given in Moscow, for the murder of a Kyrgyz citizen.

Mention should also be made of the verdict taken in Yekaterinburg against members of the ultra-right association the «Warriors of Perun - SS» for the murder of a homeless person. Ideological hatred had been considered as a motive for the murder earlier in the investigation process, but during the trial the case was reclassified and ideological motive was removed from the charges.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 9 sentences for racist violence motivated by hatred have been pronounced, against 18 people, in 9 regions of the country.

When it comes to xenophobic propaganda, at least 10 sentences were pronounced in May, in 9 regions. Ten people were convicted.

Since the beginning of 2014, 50 verdicts against xenophobic propaganda have been given in 31 regions of the country with 50 people convicted.

In May, the Federal list of extremist materials was updated on 4 occasions (on May 5, 8, 16 and 23). Materials added to the list include: several articles by the «Radical Politics» bulletin's chief editor Boris Stomakhin, Caucasian fighters' materials from the sites «Kavkaz-Tsentr», habar.org and «Imarat Kavkaz», songs by the Chechen bard Timur Mutsuraev, Bagirov's manifest from the site «Antikompromat», leaflets containing a speech written by Orthodox priest Fr. Vasily, a book written by the well-known racist ideologue Vladimir Istarkhov, articles from the site of the Imperial Cossack Union, and a whole range of xenophobic materials from the social network «Vkontakte», including the video «Angry Russia» (Zlaya Rossiya), once again recognized to be extremist, and the film «Russia stabbed in the back 2» (Rossiya s nozhom v spine 2), which was recognized as extremist in 2010 and thus already added to the list.